DelusionalGirl
by Supersilver46
Summary: If there was one thing Hermione Granger was reasonably confident in, it was that she was better then every single person who she had ever met. Of course, since she's the best, she'd undoubtedly find out the cause for a sting of bizarre murders that have been happening around Hogwarts...
1. The girl who over thinks things 1

There were many things Hermione Granger prided herself on. Her ability to retain information after months on end, the fact that she was one of the smartest, if not the smartest girl in her former school, and the fact that she was a witch. She didn't like to brag too much, she'd never been a fan of self-indulgence, but she was very capable at solving problems other people couldn't. In fact, there wasn't anything she couldn't solve if she actually put her mind to it, which is why when a sandy haired boy named Neville came into her compartment and asked if she had seen his toad, she immediately jumped on the chance to help him. She considered herself a kind and patient person, which is why they took their time searching each compartment and asking everyone they could if they had seen a toad.

Well, it was more like she did the talking, because Neville would usually stutter and blush his way through a conversation, which made progress rather difficult. So, like the person she was she took charge of the conversation and steered it in the proper path. Unfortunately, no one had seen the toad, which lead to a few unpleasant encounters with certain students. This led her to believe that the majority of the students attending Hogwarts would be exactly like the ones back at her own school. They seemed to be the kind of morons who had probably never cracked open a book, or live in the 20th century period, in a time where technology was rapidly beginning to improve, and where information was close at hand, she didn't understand how people could still be so wrong.

Oh well, it wasn't as though she expected more from people who didn't know the first thing about proper search methods. Eventually the two came upon the last compartment of the train, and she opened the door to see a dark-haired boy with glasses and a scar on his forehead sitting next to an unremarkable red-haired boy. She recognized the boy with the scar, how could she not? She'd read up on every bit of his legacy he had left behind after he had defeated You-Know-Who as a baby. He must know plenty things about the wizarding world, and there were so many questions she wanted to ask him.  
But then she wondered if it was okay to casually talk to a hero like Harry Potter. Would it seem rude if she just addressed him by his first name, should she address him in a certain fashion. He was a lord after all, at least that's what her research told her, so should she call him Lord Potter? Then again he was in a casual setting, so she didn't think he'd mind it all that much if she called him by his last name, maybe she should throw in a 'Mr.' just in case.

She began to play out the scenario in her head, in an attempt to figure out how she should approach him. The scenario was...

Positive

" _Ah excuse me Sir...er_ _Potter..um." Hermione stumbled over her words as Harry Potter and the red head kid stared at her. Sweat began to pool down her forehead, and she felt her ears burning in embarrassment. "You see I...um..."_

" _Say no more," Harry Potter said as he stood up from his seat, "I can tell that you're having issues in deciding on what to address me by."_

" _You see, there is no need for such formality my lady," He continued, "I much rather prefer to be called by my first name, Harry."_

" _You want me to call you Harry then?" Hermione asked._

" _Yes, just Harry is fine, after all that's what all my friends call me by."_

" _Wait f-friends?" Hermione asked, "If you want me to call you Harry does that mean..."_

 _Harry nodded, "You see my fair maiden, when I first saw you walk into the room, I could tell you have refined tastes," he said. "Your pose, your manners...all of it showed how dignified of a person you are."_

" _You think I'm refined?" Hermione asked as she smiled, a blush rapidly made it's_ _way onto her face. "That's very kind of you, Harry."_

" _Well since I consider you a friend, would you mind telling me your name?" he asked._

" _I-It's Hermione, Hermione Granger."_

" _Well then Hermione," Harry then got to one hand and kissed the back of her hand, "I hope we get to know each other better this year."_

 _Hermione couldn't contain her excitement, a situation like this was wonderful, it was amazing, it was..._

 _...stupid. Hermione promptly ended the simulation and berated herself for coming up with something so stupid. This was real life, things that happened in her books wouldn't happen in real life, plus no one talked like that nowadays. She managed to pull herself together and focused on getting what she wanted out of Harry Potter and the red-haired boy._

She cleared her throat, "You see Sir Potter I was-"

Harry blinked in confusion, "Why are you calling me 'Sir Potter'?"

"Um, never mind forget I mentioned that!"

Hermione coughed as she frantically tried to cover up for her mistake, that stupid simulation was throwing her off her game.

"Anyway have you see Neville's-this is Neville by the way- toad?" she asked the two of them.

"Um, no I haven't seen any toad, have you Ron?"

"Nope, we've been here the whole time and I haven't seen a toad."

Unfortunately, neither boy had seen the toad at all, which meant that trying to find it had just gotten harder. She sighed but lit up in excitement as she saw the boy with red hair, who was name was Ron, pull out a wand.

"Oh you're doing magic?" Hermione asked, "I wasn't sure we were allowed to do that on the express..."

Ron had reddened after he tried to perform a spell to turn his rat yellow, which Hermione knew was the wrong spell because she had spent hours upon hours reading about everything the wizarding world had to offer. She politely informed him that he wasn't even using a spell, which resulted in him flipping out at her, which caused her view of him to drastically lower. She'd left the compartment after that, and she and Neville had searched for his toad, and had eventually found it. After that they had gotten off the train and into some boats that would take to Hogwarts, and during the boat ride she couldn't help but wonder how people were sorted into houses.  
Nothing she had read had prepared her for the revelation that they were to be sorted by a talking hat that sang rather poorly. Surely the sorting had to be more thought out than using a hat, there must be something hidden that they weren't talking about. As Hermione thought about this, she ran a few scenarios in her mind...


	2. The girl who over thinks things 2

_"Granger, Hermione!"

After her name was called out, Hermione walked over to the stool as Professor McGonagall put the hat over her head. For a few seconds, nothing really happened, and Hermione thought that the hat might be broken. Everyone before her had placed the hat on their head and had immediately been sorted, though maybe there was something more that she should worry about this. As she continued to think, she noticed that the top of her head was getting rather warm.

*Pant* *Pant*

Then she heard the sounds of something panting next to her ear. She looked around to see if she could find the source of the panting, but when she looked next to her all she saw was Professor McGonagall staring off into space. In fact, the whole room had suddenly gone silent for some reason, they were just staring at her with cold eyes.

*Sluuurp*

Suddenly drool began to pool on her hair and she recoiled in disgust. She tried to pull the hat off her head, but it seemed as if it was stuck.

"That won't work on me little missy," The hat began to speak, "I've got myself stuck real tight on your head."

"Wh-who, what are you doing, get off me!" Hermione shouted as she tugged even harder at the hat.

"I've already told you, that doesn't work, kids these days rarely listen." The hat sighed as it enjoyed watching her struggle. "Besides why would I get off such a tasty treat?"

"A tasty treat?"

"Why yes dear Hermione, you see I'm after the thing that's inside your skull," the hat said, "I find that childrens' brains are an excellent delicacy."

"You can't just eat my brain!" Hermione shouted.

"Why not?" The hat asked, "I've already made the hard work to get to this point, might as welll get my compensation."

"Oh and don't worry, this will only hurt for a few minutes."

A sharp force plunged its way into her skull, and pain racked every bit of her body.

"Ahhhghhh!" Hermione screamed out in pain, tears pooling down her eyes as the hat pushed its teeth further down her skull. After minutes of agonizing pain, the hat lifted the top of her skull up and spat it out from the mouth in the front of the hat.

_

 _"And now time for the desert..." The hat said before breaking out into insane laughter..._

"…well you certainly have an... unique imagination." the sorting hat said as it seemed to be at a loss for words, "But I assure you I would never harm a student, that goes against what I was designed for."

Hermione snapped out of her simulation and cleared her mind. All those horror movies her uncle had showed her when she was growing up must have attributed to the failure of her simulation. It seemed to come straight out of a bad horror movie which focused on gore and cheesy effects.

"Ahem...so to get back on track," The hat said, "I think the house that's right for you is..."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Hermione tried not to let disappointment show on her face, she had wanted to end up in Ravenclaw, but before she could protest the hat was taken off her head. After that she vaguely paid attention to the other students who were sorted, though her interest was raised when Harry Potter was sorted into Gryffindor, and then the headmaster gave some rather weird speech about how the forbidden forest was forbidden and the third corridor floor was forbidden on cause of death. He topped it off by saying random things before the feast began, and after that she went straight to the girl's dormitory and fell asleep.

After a few months of theory classes, Hermione woke up and went to her first class that would allow them to actually practice magic, Transfiguration. She really liked Professor McGonagall after the demonstration she had showed her at her home. The demonstration she gave today, transfiguring a desk into a pig and transforming herself into a cat had piqued her interests. Then they were told to transform a matchstick into a needle, which Hermione felt like was a good challenge for her. Unlike the rest of the idiots here, she had actually practiced non-stop after she had been told she was a witch, she'd even practically memorized her transfiguration book.

It should be easy for her to do it, but maybe she should run a simulation just to be sure things will work out...or not.

It turned out that transforming a matchstick into a needle and then back again was rather easy. In fact, she hardly had to try at all, and the approving look she got from Professor McGonagall made things feel pretty good for her. The fact that she was the first one to manage to do it also helped to improve her mood, especially when she saw how they struggled with managing to manipulate the piece of wood at all. Really, it was kind of pathetic, did they even open one of their books before they got to class? Class ended soon after that, and about half of the class had managed to turn their matchsticks into needles and the other half hadn't even come close to that.

After that she had gone to her other classes for the day before heading up to the common room She said the password to the painting and sighed as she heard a few girls giggling to themselves as they looked down at a magazine.

"Isn't he so cute Parvati?" One of the girls asked the other one who was apparently named Padma, "I loved his book, _Werewolves and me,_ so much."

"Yeah I loved it too Lavender!" Parvati said, "Especially at that one part where he wrestled with the werewolf with his bare hands!"

"Isn't Lockheart the best?!"

Hermione scoffed as she went up to her room, they were talking about the cuteness of some author while they could be studying. She never got the appeal of that kind of stuff, though if you were a moron she could tell that you would enjoy that kind of stuff. Apparently, Paravti heard Hermione scoff at them and lowered her voice to whisper something to Lavender who laughed. Hermione then went to her bed and looked around to see if anyone was looking before sliding out a thick book from underneath her pillow. Its cover showed a red haired girl drawn in a pastel style standing in front of a giant robot that loomed over her.

The name of the book was, New Age Fundum Wing, it was about a girl who was fighting against the earth who oppressed those who lived out in space colonies, with her robot, Fundum Wing. Many people had called it some pretty girl mecha anime that went against the original Fundum Wing's ideals, but those people clearly didn't understand the complex politics and themes that were included in the manga. To Hermione, unlike the other trashy manga out there, the Fundum series was a well thought out work created by genius minds. All you had to do was look past the art style to see something truly wondrous in the manga.

Hermione read the book well into the night...

.

.

.

Cold...the cold was all they could feel nowadays. The warmth that they had once had was gone, replaced by something entirely different. They squinted their eyes as they shuffled along Diagon Alley, ignoring the looks they got from the people that past them. Flies buzzed angerly at them was they idly swat them away from their body. People wrinkled their nose at them as they walked by, they were put off by the stench that followed them as they continued to walk. They had to drag their left leg on the ground, they couldn't even feel if it was there or not anymore, but still they continued to push forward. They were determined not to let anything distract them, all of their efforts would be put towards reaching their goal.

A woman saw their face and recoiled in shock, backing away into a worker who was fixing tiles on a roof. The man ended up dropping the tile on the ground, causing it to shatter into red pieces that stuck into his foot. As the man screamed out in pain, and the people began to panic, they ignored all of it.

And just kept walking... 


	3. The girl who over thinks things 3

Eventually, Friday had come along, and Hermione was slightly excited as she sat in the potion's classroom. Hermione had read many things about potions, from simple ones that helped with sleep to more advanced ones that produced a temporary cure for lycanthropy, she figured the principal would be as competent as McGonagall. As a greasy haired man with a hook nose walked into the room with a bombastic flair, his actions after his entrance had lowered her opinion of him. He seemed to be a bully who liked asking someone questions they didn't know and watching as they squirmed to provide an answer. After being grilled on questions he didn't know, Harry eventually said,

"I don't know, but I think Hermione does."

Snape eyes turned to face her, and for some reason he frowned even more, and Hermione couldn't help but mentally panic. She wasn't sure why he wasn't happy with her, had she done something in the past that he hadn't liked? She played a scenario in her mind for each possible outcome which was... Neutral

"..." Snape stays silent for a few moment just staring at Hermione before ignoring her addressing the rest of the class,

"What are you all waiting for, get started!" He yells causing the rest of the class to scramble to write notes as he instructed them on how to create the boil cure potion. He stalks down the rows barking orders and insults at the Gryffindors and giving praise to the Slytherins. Hermione couldn't help but inwardly sigh, she was actually looking forward to potions, but now that she saw first-hand how the teacher was exactly like the idiots who bullied her back home. As Snape eventually made his way over to her desk he peered down at her potion and moved on, he had apparently decided to not to attack or praise her but just ignore her.

Which was difficult for Hermione because she was used to receiving praise for something she did right, and since she knew the potion was perfect, despite the fact that her partner, Ron Weasely nearly ruined it, so shouldn't he have at least said something? Suddenly she heard something explode behind her and she whirled around to see Neville get a face full of the potion he was making before he dropped to the ground.

"Potter, why didn't you stop him!" Snape yelled at Harry, "Planning on using him as your shield, aren't you?"

Snape then pointed to some other boy, "You! Hurry up and get him to the infirmary!"

After that class had ended without any other incidents and Hermione sighed in relief as she left the classroom. Hopefully, things would change later in the week, but she somehow doubted Snape would ever change given what she had seen of the man. He was the exact kind of person Hermione had absolute contempt for, a person who was so pathetic and worthless that they had to try and kick others down just to feel better about themselves.

Over the course of the next week, the potion classes had remained exactly the same with Snape ignoring her and sniping at Harry for no apparent reason. Luckily in her other classes she managed to snag her house multiple points on her own by answering questions that the others had no idea how to answer. She didn't make any friends during the week, but that was fine with her, she'd prefer not to deal with people who couldn't even manage to be on the same level as her.

On one sunny day, the Gryffindors and Slytherins had their first flying lessons together which ended as well as you would expect.

"Alright then, to get your broom to you all you need to do is point at your broom and shout, 'up!'" their instructor told them.

What followed was a chorus of 'Up!'s that resulted in their brooms simply rolling around on the ground. Hermione frowned as her broom rolled around on the ground and tried again to get her broom to her when she heard the instructor shout at Neville who had ended up shooting into the air before falling off his broom and hitting the ground. Hermione couldn't help but wince in sympathy as the instructor dragged Neville to the infirmary, he'd had two injuries within the span of two weeks.

"Well, what's this?" She heard Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin, say as he picked up a ball that was laying on the ground, "It seems as though Longbottom dropped it." Malfoy moved to pocket the ball but Harry got in Malfoy's way.

"Give it back Malfoy," Harry said, his mouth set into a firm line. Malfoy then taunted Harry as he got onto his broom and flew into the sky, Hermione would have told Harry that if he chased after Malfoy he would end up losing points for their house or get detention, but he rapidly followed after Malfoy.

Hermione couldn't notice how high up the two of them had gotten, and couldn't help but think about the possible outcomes that could happen if the two of them weren't careful. She ran simple simulations in her mind to see what could possibly happen which were; Positive

 _"Bloody hell, he's going to fall!" Ron shouted as he pointed up at Harry who struggled to stay on his broom. Draco had immediately realized his rival showed signs of weakness and went in for the kill,_

 _"Take this Potter!" Draco shouted as he stuck his leg out when Harry passed by him. Harry, who had become winded after the kick to the stomach, nearly fell off his broom. He managed to hang on with one hand firmly clasped to his broom, though it was easy to tell that he was struggling to hang on. Everyone else was paralyzed with fear as Draco righted himself and launched himself at Harry who let go on instinct._

 _He hovered in the air for a short while, defying all laws of gravity as he fixed Draco with a frim glare. Draco leaned back on his broom and let out a harsh laugh before speaking to Harry in a lower tone,_

 _"So you've shown your true strength, huh Potter?" Draco said as he leapt off his broom and floated in midair like Harry was currently doing. "Should've known you couldn't resist the chance to show off your powers."_

 _"..." Harry said nothing as Draco continued on his tirade_

 _"I thought you had died once we wiped out those pathetic half-breeds you called your family," Draco laughed softly as he saw the look on Harry's face, "Unfortunately it seems we miscalculated, I suppose it's time to correct our mistake."_

 _Suddenly Draco darted forward and threw a quick jab at Harry who immediately blocked before grabbing Draco by his tie and slamming his knee into his face. Draco recoiled, and Harry pressed the advantage as he rapidly punched and kicked at Draco, who desperately tried to regain his footing. Draco quickly flew back in the air and charged purple colored energy in the palms of his hands. Hermione could feel wisps of heat wash over her as Draco fired the ball of energy down at Harry who ended up being obscured in smoke as the attack seemingly connected._

 _Draco laughed, "Ha, I knew that stealing this from Longbottom was useful!" he said as he began to explain its purpose, "It's a power amplifier that boosts my beam attacks by 100%!"_

 _"Bloody hell, 1000%?!" Ron shouted._

 _Draco smirked as he charged another energy beam attack, "And now it's time for my final attack, die mudbloods!" Draco blasted the energy straight towards Hermione, and she shut her eyes tight as her death rapidly approached. Only to open them in shock as she saw Harry, who's clothes were torn, standing in front of her as he blocked the energy and sent it flying off into the sky where it exploded._

 _"Bloody hell!" Ron yelled._

 _"H-how?" Draco said in worry as Harry charged up a blue beam attack and launched at Draco, who was soon engulfed in by the blue light,_

 _"No, my lord I've failed you!" Draco yelled as he was vaporized._

 _Harry then turned to her and said,_ "Hey why are you staring at me like that?"

Huh?

Hermione blinked as Harry looked at her in confusion, the ball that Draco had stolen was firmly in his grasp.

"Huh?" Hermione said before shaking her, "I-I wasn't staring at you I was...thinking about something!"

"You sure?" Ron asked, unconvinced at Hermione's attempts to cover for herself, "You were staring at him for so long, it was kind of creepy."

"Just shut up!" Hermione shouted, her face flushed in embarrassment, "Anyway Harry, you shouldn't have done what you did what if-"

"Mr. Potter! Mr. Malfoy!" Their instructor shouted as she rounded on the two boys, she lectured them for a brief time about the danger they could have gotten themselves in, their recklessness, Hermione mentally agreed with everything the instructor said. How could the two of them do something so dangerous, they should know better! Eventually, their flight instructor dragged the two of them away, no doubt planning on giving them the appropriate punishment they deserve.

"Do you have to sound so high and mighty?" Ron said.

...She was speaking aloud wasn't she? Embarrassed for the second time today, she marched into Hogwarts, her face flaming red... 


	4. The girl who over thinks things 4

She was a little irritated after she had heard the news, instead of being punished for his actions today, Harry was getting awarded a spot onto the quidditch team. Her view of Professor McGonagall lowered after hearing that, seriously what was the point of rewarding someone for bad behavior? Was it worth it just to beat Slytherin in the race for the House Cup that they would hand Harry a 'Get out of jail' free card since he had the potential to be good at a sport? Evidently it probably was for McGonagall, Hermione had wanted to give Harry a lecture about it, but after what happened the last few times she chickened out of it.

So now she was basically pacing back and forth in the Common Room muttering things underneath her breath, and glaring at the clock on the wall. Lavender and Padma were talking to themselves again, probably about something stupid like some wizard model or something. She honestly felt bad for those two, they'd probably never be able to understand anything more complex than a few cliché stories.

"Hey, Granger..."

Really maybe she should try to introduce her manga to those two, so they could know what actual good literature was.

"Granger..."

Though she doubted they would be able to appreciate it, they'd probably be squeamish at the near sight of blood.

"Granger!"

"Eep!" Hermione jumped in shock as Padma yelled at her, though she quickly coughed to make up for that, "U-um what do you need?"

Parvati sighed, "Seriously we've been calling your name for the past two minutes, she then smirked, "Were you thinking about something again?"

"Well..."

"Nevermind, actually we wanted to ask you something," Parvati said.

"Uh, sure what is it?" Hermione asked.

Lavender spoke up, "We wanted to practice on you, to see if it'll work right."

"To see if what works right?" Hermione asked.

"Well we wanted to try out this new fashion trend that's catching on," Parvati explained, "And we wanted to see if it would work on you."

Oh, so in other words she'd be their guinea pig. Hermione thought for a few seconds, on the one hand it couldn't hurt to try new things, but on the other hand she would be dealing with Lavender and Parvati. She thought about for a little bit, and created a simulation that was; Positive

 _"Oh,sure I'd love to help you two out!" Hermione said happily as she skipped over to a chair that Lavender and Padma got for her. "It sounds really fun, so of course I'd like to help!"_

 _"Thank you so much Hermione!" Parvati said as she and Lavender began to work on Hermione, "I knew that someone as talented as you would love to help us!"_

 _"Well she is the best girl in our class right now," Lavender said as combed through Hermione's hair, "Of course she would be willing to help us."_

 _"Ah, I don't think I'm the best girl..." Hermione said as she smiled, trying to downplay her achievements._

 _"What, no way you're totally amazing Hermione!" Parvati said as her eyes shone in wonder, "I'm actually totally jealous of you."_

 _"You are?"_

 _"Yeah, I can't be as smart as you so I read magazines to make myself feel better."_

 _"I can't really read at all," Lavender said in shame, "At least not in the way you can Hermione."_

 _"Oh it's not that hard, it's quite simple when you get down to it," Hermione said._

 _Lavender blushed, "W-would you be willing to teach me?"_

 _Parvati quickly spoke up, "M-me too, I'd like to learn from a master like you Hermione!"_

 _Hermione laughed, it felt good to be praised, especially by people like them. After they finished grooming her she stood up and stretched as she looked into the be honest, she looked amazing, like a goddess even, a thought began to surface in her mind as the two girls begged for her help, maybe she should see how further she could go with this?_

 _"I'll help you if you do one thing for me," Hermione said._

 _""What is it master?!"" Lavender and Parvati said at the same time._

 _"Bow to me, and maybe I'll consider helping you."_

 _The two girls nodded and got onto their knees, and began to bow to her._

 _"All praise Hermione!" Lavender said._

 _"The paragon of beauty, praise her name!" Parvati said._

 _Hermione laughed as the two worshiped her, loving the attention and the-_

"Hey why is she laughing?"

Huh?

Hermione blinked and found herself back in reality, with Parvati and Lavender giving her odd looks from across the room. Parvati shook her head, as she none too subtly whispered to Lavender,

"I don't know, but it's really creepy." she said. "Like seriously, it's like she's about to launch into some monologue or something."

"U-um, do you guys still need me or...?" Hermione said as her face flushed red, the two girls shook their heads as they stared at Hermione. "Er, alright then I-I'll just um...go."

As she quickly climbed up the stairs, she heard Parvati say to Lavender,

"Is it too late to switch Houses?"

.

The next few weeks blurred together as Hermione took a conscious effort to avoid making a fool of herself in front of anyone like she had in front of Lavender and Parvati. During those few weeks she had mainly focused on winning her house as many points as she could, though those seemed to be taken away as soon as Snape felt Harry deserved additional suffering, or if Ron made mistakes in her potion Snape would take away points for her, "Not reacting in time to stop an idiot from hurting himself." The other professors were rather nice, she liked going to her Charms class to learn new spells to use. However there was another professor besides Snape that she didn't particularly like; Professor Quirrell.

He didn't take away points for no reason like Snape, but he was much more pathetic of a teacher than Binns. Hermione felt it was a shame that a ghost could somehow teach better than a functional adult human being. Quirrell seemed to be terrified of everything, which was emphasized with his usual stutter, and why Dumbledore hired someone like him to teach a class that would tell them how to defend against the Dark Arts, she'd never know. Things had progressed rather smoothly at Hogwarts, she didn't have any friends, but she was used to being on her own. Having to deal with people who couldn't even match her was irritating, especially when they felt as though they could topple her in order to prove something.

One day, she over heard Malfoy challenge Harry to a duel, and being the good person that she was she wanted him to be aware that he'd be breaking school rules. Ron had gotten hostile for no apparent reason, and Hermione had decided to convince them again at night. Of course, she didn't anticipate getting locked out of the common room and being forced to hide with the two boys in a room on the third corridor floor.

"Seriously, you should've listened to me." She hissed at them as they hid in the dark room, "Don't you realize that-"

Then she felt warm breath against the back of her neck, which sent her hair standing on end. Judging by the pale looks of Harry and Ron, something was behind her, something that wasn't particularly pleasant to look at.

 _Don't look, don't look don't look..._

Hermione stood stock still, her mind whirling with the possibilities of what could possibly be behind her, the scenarios in her mind were going overdrive as fear began to take hold of her. 


	5. The girl who over thinks things 5

_Wrong.

Something...something here felt very wrong, it didn't feel like the room they had just ran into. It felt as though a heavy force was pushing down on her, crushing her as she tried her best not to look. She couldn't look, no matter what, sweat poured down her forehead as the hot breath washed over the back of her neck once more. She shivered as she looked at the two boys in front of her, they trembled as they looked at the thing that was behind her, she could hear the sounds of chains shifting as the thing drew near. The chains clanked as they were dragged on the ground, making a loud sound that reminded her of nails on chalkboard for some reason.

Don't look...

Then she could suddenly hear footsteps that slowly walked towards her, the tap of shoes against the concrete echoed through the room, the chains thudded to the ground as the person began to get closer to her.

Don't look...

A bony hand clutched her shoulder as the person breathed heavily , the rancid smell of their breath made her wrinkle her nose as she fought hard not to scream.

Don't look, if you look you're dead.

But she ended up ignoring her own advice as she slowly turned her head to look at the person behind her. Her breathing became erratic and her body began to shake as she saw the person standing there. Their hair was a greasy long mess that hung in front of their face, obscuring it from view. A long burn mark snaked along their neck, they wore a dirty blue and white prison jumpsuit that was marred with a mixture of blood and dirt. Their fingernails were long and sharp, part of their nails were chipped away and their hands were coated in mud. Their legs were coated in mud as well, and their shoes were half rotting as they fell apart. A powerful stench hung around their body, which made Hermione feel like she wanted to gag. And she realized, that she was facing down a killer. Suddenly, she heard the door shut, and turned around to see that Harry and Ron had ran away, leaving her alone with the person in the room. She turned back to see that the killer had gotten close to her face, and she recoiled as she fell to the ground with a scream. She tried to get up and move back to the door so she could get away, but she found herself paralyzed with fear as the killer inched ever closer to her.

She scrambled to her feet and ran for the door, only to find that it was locked, she pounded on the door as the killer shuffled along the ground as they approached her, seemingly having all the time in the world.

"Hello?!" Hermione shouted as she pounded on the door, "Is anyone there?!"

"Hello, anyone?!"

The killer began to laugh as she pounded at the door, enjoying her suffering for all that it was worth.

"Hey, please help!" Hermione shouted at the top of her lungs, "Someone please help-!"

She felt the person yank her hair and she was forced back into the darkness by the killer. The last words she heard before she met her demise was...

"I fooound you!" the killer said before breaking out into laughter.

_

 _"Hahahahaha!"_

"No!" Hermione shouted as she dove out of the room, "I don't want to die!"

"I don-mph!"

"Hermione, shut up!" she heard someone hiss at her as they put their hand over her mouth, "Do you want Filch to catch us?!"

"Wh-what?" Hermione looked around, she was out in the third corridor, and Ron and Harry had gotten out of the room as well, and she figured that Ron was the one who was covering her mouth. "Where'd the killer go?"

"Killer?" Harry asked in confusion, "There wasn't anyone other than us in there with you, well that and-"

She saw a large black dog snap at the three of them, before retreating back into the room.

"That large dog..."

Hermione held a hand to her beating heart, and sighed in relief.

"Well I hope you two are happy!" She shouted at them, "We could've been killed-or worse expelled!"

She stormed away from them, angry at both them and herself for letting her imagination go wild like that. For some reason she couldn't help but think about...that man tonight. Thankfully though, he was behind bars, so she wasn't sure why she had started to think about him for some reason, especially after she had moved past that part of her life. She shook her head as she quickly said the password to the portrait and went to the girls dorm, after that she immediately fell asleep as soon as her head rested on her pillow... 


	6. The girl who over thinks things 6

It had been a few days ever since the incident in the room on the third floor corridor, Hermione had decided to make more of an effort to avoid seeing or talking to either Harry or Ron. They hadn't listened to her when she had warned them, and that had nearly caused all three of them to get killed, she honestly didn't know what was wrong with the two of them. Halloween had soon rolled around and they were currently learning the 'Wingardium Leviosa' spell, she had naturally gotten down the spell in one try. Ron was struggling with it though, though that was because he kept mispronouncing the spell name, she had corrected him, but he'd gotten hostile after that for some reason. After class had ended, she'd heard him saying,

"She's such a know it all, no wonder she has no friends."

She had pushed past him, and had gone to the bathroom to cry for a little bit, which is where she still was. She wiped her tears away, so what if she didn't have any friends? In the long run, they were practically worthless idiots who couldn't hold a halfway intelligent conversation with her, who preferred to talk about the latest trends or sports. She didn't need friends, she'd been doing perfectly fine on her own before she came to Hogwarts, and she'd be fine being alone here.

She heard a thud against the door, and she frowned. Didn't she make it clear that she wanted to be left alone? Suddenly a rancid smell began to flow into the room, and she wrinkled her nose. And then she hear the door to the lavatory shatter into pieces, and her heart practically leapt into her throat. Should she try and see what was going on outside her stall, or should she wait in here? She decided to play a simulation in her head to see how things could possibly work out which were;

Negative

 _Hermione decided to take a peek out of the stall she was currently in, it wasn't like it would hurt to take a small peek would it? As the door slowly creaked open the door a sickly sweet smell in the bathroom suddenly got strong and she tried not to gag. For some reason, smoke covered the bathroom, making it hard for her to see where she was going. A wet sound caught her attention, and she looked down to see that she had walked into a puddle, as she walked forward she noted that the puddle she was walking through was sticking to her shoes. At first she didn't understand why it was doing that, it seemed rather strange to her._

 _But then the smoke cleared and she saw the 'puddle' she was stepping in. For some reason it was colored red, and when she stuck her finger into the puddle her finger was stained red. What was she even stepping in? Maybe someone died water red and decided to play some weird prank on her, which made her feel angry._

 _"Hey if you think this is funny then-" She started to say but she then tripped and fell face first into the red liquid. She spat the liquid out of her mouth, the metallic taste of the liquid made her eyes water. And then she saw it, and her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the body that was floating in the red liquid. Their eyes were open wide in shock, their neck was twisted into an unnatural position, and their ribs jutted out from their chest, exposing the rotting meat inside their body._

 _"Ahh..." She tried to back away, but ended up bumping into something else, she shakily turned around to see another body that was on the ground, it looked almost exactly like the other body that was across the ground, but it's face was smashed, their teeth were shattered into a million pieces that were littered along the ground. One of their eyes hung out of their sockets, and the other was smashed into a white pulp on the ground. And then she realized, she realized who's corpse was lying on the ground._

 _They were all her, every single one of the corpses were her. Hermione's breaths became erratic as she tried to shut her eyes and try to ignore the bodies that were littered on the ground. Then she heard the sounds of footsteps, loud, inhuman footsteps. An ugly green hulking mass lumbered towards her, a large club was held in its hands. The name of the beast came to her mind as she sat on the ground, paralyzed by fear, it was a troll, one of the most dangerous creatures in the magical world. Its club was stained red, and she realized that it was stained with her blood and she tried to get to her feet to run away. It happened to fast though, the troll swung its club and she was sent flying through the air, and hit the ground hard._

 _"G...Gaghhh!" She screamed out in pain as blood pooled out of her mouth. She couldn't breath, her ribs had punctured her lungs and now blood was rushing into them, causing her to hurl blood out from her mouth._

 _It hurts... she thought to herself as the troll lumbered over to her._

 _Ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurt-_

 _The troll swung it's club down and she couldn't feel anything anymore._

"!" Hermione slapped her hand over mouth to keep herself from screaming. She could hear loud footsteps outside in the lavatory, and she shook in fear. She couldn't leave the stall, if she did she'd get killed, her only hope was to hide in here and hope that whatever was outside went away. She brought her feet up so the thing outside couldn't see her and tried to slow her breathing, hopefully it would go away. The footsteps stopped and Hermione's heart beat fast in her chest.

 _Just go away...please go away..._ Hermione prayed as the footsteps began to move away from the stall. And then, she heard something slice through the air, and the top of the stall was sliced off. She couldn't help herself and ended up screaming, the troll outside roared as it raised its club and swung it towards her. Hermione ducked and crawled under the stall to the one next to her as the troll hit the ground with its club. She quickly burst out of the stall and tried to run away as the troll roared again and chased after her.

"Hermione!"

She heard someone shout her name and saw Harry and Ron suddenly slide into the bathroom. Their eyes widened as the saw the troll chasing her, and and she ended up tripping and knocking herself out...

While she was unconscious she imagined a scenario that was...

Negative

 _"Okay Harry, we can definitely do this." Ron said, but Hermione could hear the fear creeping into his tone, "We just have to protect Hermione until the professors get here!"_

 _Harry agreed, and the two of them began to fire any hex or jinx they could think of at the troll, which took a step back after being barraged with spells. The troll shook its head and roared at the two before Harry got a lucky hit in and the hex entered its mouth. It's throat drooped as it tried to roar, causing to let out a muffled yell._

 _"We...we can do this!" Ron cheered after he saw the hit the troll took from Harry's spell, "We can beat this thing!"_

 _The two of them threw even more spells with rigor, forcing the troll to take multiple steps back before stumbling and falling to the ground. The troll didn't sound like it was getting back up, and Ron couldn't help but laugh in relief._

 _"Hey I can't believe it was that easy!"_

 _Hermione suddenly heard the sound of something slicing through the air and then she heard the sound of something bursting, as if someone had taken a bat and broke a watermelon in one hit. A sickly sweet smell wafted through the air, along with the smell of meat. She could hear Harry panic as his breathing became erratic,_

 _"A...AHHHGHH!" He screamed. She could then hear the sounds of Harry crying as he fired off spell after spell at the troll, until she couldn't hear the sounds of the troll moving. She blinked awake only to recoil in shock, Ron-or what was left of Ron-was lying by her side, his head had practically exploded, and chunks of flesh littered the ground along with the shattered fragments of his skull. Blood pooled out of the bloody stump that was his neck, and stained her uniform red._

 _"This is your fault..."_

 _At first, Harry was so quiet that she couldn't hear him clearly, but then he got up to his feet and glared at her,_

 _"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" he yelled. "If you hadn't been so stupid he'd be alive!"_

 _Hermione couldn't say anything as Harry approached her, a burning fire in the pit of his eyes._

 _Hermione crawled back until she hit a wall, and Harry lunged forward-his hands grasped her neck._

 _"Ga..gh..." She desperately tried to pull his hands away, but Harry was stronger than he looked._

 _"You don't deserve to live, just die!"_

 _Harry squeezed even harder, and Hermione slowly began to stop struggling, her last thought on her mind before she died was..._

 _'I'm sorry...'_

Hermione woke up with a gasp and found herself in the infirmary room, sweat poured down her face as the nurse rushed over to her side.

"Are you alright Ms. Granger?" The nurse asked, "You looked like you were having a terrible dream."

Hermione weakly shook her head, "I-I'm fine."

The nurse didn't seem to think she was fine, but she pursed her lips as Dumbledore and a few other professors entered the room.

"How are you feeling Ms. Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked her, worry written all over her face. "You weren't looking well when and Mr. Weasley called for help."

"I-I'm fine, um, where are Harry and Ron?" Hermione asked, as her mind involuntarily flashed back to her past nightmares. "Are they okay?"

Professor McGonagall sighed, "They're fine, even if they were shaken up the troll, but we actually wanted to ask you something."

Professor Dumbledore spoke up, "Mr. Potter said that he and Mr. Weasley were the ones who caused you to hide in the lavatory," He then peered over his glasses, "Is that true?"


	7. The girl who overthinks things 7

_Positive_

 _"Well you see professor," Hermione began, "I was out to destroy the beast once and for all, those two just got in my way."_

 _Dumbledore blinked in confusion, "Ms. Granger what do you mean by, 'once and for all'?"_

 _Hermione chuckled, clearly they didn't know her true identity! "You see, that beast and I have somewhat of a rivalry," she continued, "He is my sworn nemesis, his name is Destructor the Troll."_

 _"The troll has a name?" Dumbledore asked, in confusion as Hermione nodded._

 _"Yes, you see Destructor killed my family when I was young, and since then I have sworn revenge," Hermione said, "I have gone through rigorous training ontop of the highest mountains to have my revenge."_

 _"For I am the amazing sorceress, Juliet Winters!"_

 _Snape gasped in shock, "No way, you're the amazing sorceress?!" he squeed as he pulled out a potion book, "Can I have your autograph?!"_

 _Hermione laughed, "Of course, I would do anything for my adoring fans!"_

 _Dumbledore began to bow down to her, "I apologize for not recognizing you earlier," he said, "It is my pleasure to welcome one as amazing as you."_

 _McGonagall and Pomfrey began to bow as well, "Praise be to the sorceress supreme!" they chanted, "Praise the very ground she walks on!"_

 _Hermione laughed again, man this felt so amazing!_

...She really doubted that would even fool them though, all they had to do was look to her very alive mother for proof that she was lying. Hermione sighed and looked up at the Headmaster,

"It was my fault," Hermione said, "I'm the one who caused them to look for me, so if anyone should be punished it should be me."

"Well thank you for telling me the truth," Professor Dumbledore said, "But we won't punish you for something you couldn't have predicted."

Professor McGonagall nodded, "Yes, we won't punish either of the boys either," she leveled a firm glare at Snape who had opened his mouth to say something, "However they did put themselves in danger, so we will take points away."

Snape sneered, "Really do you think that punishment is appropriate enough for them, you're being too soft on Weasley and Potter."

Professor McGonagall frowned, "They risked their lives to help someone in danger Serverus," she said, "And while I disagree with their methods, I don't think we should punish them for acting in the interest of others."

"Well I-"

"Now, now," Professor Dumbledore cut in before the two could start arguing, "I think we should leave Ms. Granger alone for now, besides there are some people who want to see her."

Hermione felt a bit puzzled, who would want to visit her?

As it turned out, Harry and Ron sheepishly entered the room after the professors had left.

"Um, Hermione how are you doing?" Harry asked.

"I'm fine Harry, thank you for asking." Hermione said.

Ron looked down at the ground before turning to face her, "Listen, Hermione I wanted to say-"

"I'm sorry."

Ron stopped mid sentence and looked at Hermione in confusion, "Wait what are you sorry for?" he asked.

"I'm sorry for acting like a know-it-all, and for nearly getting you two killed," Hermione said, "The whole situation was my fault."

Ron shook his head, "No it's my fault too, I shouldn't have called you a know-it-all," He said, "So I wanted to apologize for that."

Harry spoke up, "Besides we weren't really in any danger," he said, "After you passed out, the troll just...stopped for some reason."

Hermione rose an eyebrow, "It just stopped?" she asked.

Ron nodded, "Yeah it just stood there staring into blank space," he said, "Then the professors showed up and captured it, it didn't even try to fight."

"Well that's strange..." The troll was really aggressive when it saw her, and from what she had read they rarely stopped attacking for anything, to hear one just stopped in it's tracks was rather odd.

"Anyway," Ron said, shaking Hermione out of her thoughts, "Let's start over, we didn't really make a great first impression."

He cleared his throat, "Hey there my name is Ron Weasley," Ron said as he held his hand out, "Nice to meet you!"

Harry then smiled, "And I'm Harry Potter, it's nice to meet you."

Hermione smiled as well, "My name is-"

.

 _Memo, to all staff members_

 _Subject series #851813915145_

 _The subject has shown great signs of progress from it's initial state, when it could barely construct coherent sentences. The subject now shows signs of being more active in its community, and has made contact with the priority target. As a result, we can now proceed to the next stage, take great care when moving forward, a former member of ours has become alert after the incident that took place a few weeks prior, though we believe they are unaware of our current goals. In addition, you may now use any means you wish to start the next phase, we will continue to monitor how the situation proceeded from here. Remember, our eyes are the ones that see all..._

 _..._

Kingsley Shacklebolt sighed as he walked up the steps to the old home and entered the house, inside various Auror's were taking photos of the home, and searching around the living room for trace evidence. A white outline of a human that looked downright cartoonish was drawn in the middle of the living room, and blood had stained the carpet. In the kitchen a corner stood holding a clipboard, frowning down at it as he rapidly wrote down things about the state of the body they had found.

"Sighing already, Shacklebolt?" he heard a person say behind him, "Are you giving up on the case so soon?"

Kingsley turned around to see that Rufus Scrimgeour, his senior, had walked into the room.

"No, I'm not giving up," Kingsley said to Scrimgeour, "I'm just a bit perplexed at this murder, it's just a bit bizarre."

"Well you're right about that, it is bizarre," Scrimgeour said, "I don't think I've seen anything like this."

Kingsley sighed as he thought back to the events that had happened this morning. A complaint had been lodged to the landlord about a strange odor emanating from a house next door that had persisted over the week, saying that it smelt like "rotten meat." The landlord had decided to check it out, but had said the owner of the home had not opened the door when he had knocked, the landlord got a spare key to the house, and had opened the door to find the source of the smell was lying on the floor, dead. Judging by the decomposition of what was left of the body, it was most likely that the victim had been dead for more than a week.

The victim was a former professor at Hogwarts, who had decided to seclude himself in his house after he had retired. Most of his neighbors said that they had rarely seen him leave his home, and the times he did leave were to either pay the rent or pick up groceries from Diagon Alley. He rarely had visitors either, and most of the residents were glad to leave him alone as long as he didn't bother them. Naturally, the victim had locked himself away in his home for two weeks, and had missed paying rent. No one had thought it was odd at the time, but now that he was dead it was a bit of a headache to find out the reason as to why he died.

The fact that most of the residents had alibis for the past week was also a point of concern as well, but in Kingsley's opinion there wasn't really a need to question them. Kingsley and Scrimgeour walked into the kitchen, and the coroner looked up at them,

"Oh you're here, well I suppose you want to know how the victim died?" the coroner said.

"Right, I already saw the photos of the body," Kingsley said, "But I don't really know how he died."

"Well you see it's a bit of an odd way to be killed," the coroner began, "The victim ulcer was torn open, but not by ordinary means."

The coroner pointed to the dead insects and spiders that littered the ground, "His stomach had a whole bunch of bugs in there, they chewed through his stomach tissue like there was no tomorrow."

Kingsley grimaced as he remembered the photo he was shown of the body, and how it looked like his skin was made out of paper as the bugs made their way out of his body before dying soon after.

"How is that even possible?" Kingsley asked, "Wouldn't the stomach acid kill the bugs?"

The coroner shrugged, "I have no idea how they didn't die," the coroner said, "But I think an important question is why the victim ate bowls full of bugs."

"The victim did it to himself?" Scrimgeour asked, "That's a roundabout way of committing suicide."

Kingsley nodded in agreement, it seemed way too flashy for a simple suicide, but then again maybe he wanted to go out with a bang, some of the professors at Hogwarts were strange like that.

"So I guess that means its case closed then," Scimgeour said, "He was depressed, and ate bugs to kill himself."

He then turned to leave, before turning back to face Kingsley, "Oh and by the way, you better get started on that report."

Kingsley sighed, and then stopped as he heard the sound of something clicking, as though someone had taken a photo. He looked around, but he didn't see anyone, so perhaps he was just imagining it...

.

.

.

It had been a couple of weeks after the troll incident, and now Hermione was friends with Harry and Ron. They had talked about how they had seen Snape threaten Quirrell on the third floor, and how Snape was now walking with a limp. It seemed as though Snape was after the thing that was in the room they had stumbled into when they were hiding from Flich, so Ron and Harry were rather sure that Snape was up to no good. Hermione wasn't too sure about that, but Snape's actions did make him seem rather suspicious.

Today, there was supposed to be a big match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, so she and Ron were sitting in the stands watching Harry play. The Slytherins had been making attempts at hitting Harry, but he usually managed to quickly dart out of the way. But then something strange happened to Harry's broom, and he ended up rising higher and higher into the air. Everyone had gone into an uproar and watched in worry as Harry lost control of his broom. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Quirrell and Snape standing with their wands out and pointed at Harry, she wasn't sure who was the one trying to kill Harry, but she needed to act quickly just to make sure that those two would stop!


End file.
